


Styling

by Missy



Category: King of the Hill
Genre: Aunt-Niece Relationship, Coming of Age, Gen, Hair, Kid Fic, Nail Polish, Pre-Canon, Rites of Passage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-01
Updated: 2013-10-01
Packaged: 2017-12-28 03:22:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/987069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy/pseuds/Missy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Little Luanne is down in the dumps after her mom picks on her.  When her Aunt Peg rides to the rescue, her first girl's night in ensues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Styling

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Trope Bingo, square "Rites of Passage/Coming of Age".

Her first friend was a Barbie head. Disembodied, remotely glamorous, with a cloud of meringue-light hair framing her face, she spent many an hour alone with Luanne in her tiny bedroom at the back of the trailer, perpetually smiling as she tried to comb the false threads of beauty into a braid or perfectly tight ringlets like the ones on the head pasted to the box.

She could never quite arrange them perfectly. They were either too curly or too frizzy, and they would never hold a proper braid because of their shredded plastic composition. But it was so much fun to try. Playing with Barbie made Luanne feel special, and yet exactly like every girl her age, whether they were so-called ‘trailer trash’ or not.

Her mother calls her Lulu, while smoking her cigarettes and watching Luanne sculpt her doll’s hair. Leanne teeters toward her daughter, drunker than Luanne’s ever seen her, and far more dangerous when she’s waiting for her layabout father to appear. 

“You know, you’re not so great,” her mother hisses. She grabs one of Barbie’s loose braids and gives it a yank. “You’re just wasting your time playing around with all of this froosy froo stuff!” she hiccupped, took another swig from her can of Golden Key Beer. “Trust me, girly girl – you’re not going anywhere!”

Luanne hid her tears in Barbie’s hair and ran toward her bedroom – she locked herself within it, refusing to emerge until she heard her aunt’s familiar knock. 

“Honey? Come to the door.”

Luanne moved more slowly than she would have were it a few months ago; her Aunt Peg, the light of her young life, had become a scarce figure when she married Hank…Uncle Hank, she mentally corrected herself. Even with newfound distance lying between them Luanne could not stop her adolescent emotions from rushing forth, and she threw her arms around her Aunt Peg’s knees and cried wildly. Peggy awkwardly patted her shoulder until Luanne coaxed the right words from between her mortified lips.

“Sweetheart, never, ever listen to your mother!” Peggy ordered. “You’ll never, ever turn out like her, okay? I’ll make sure of it.”

Luanne nodded, her puffy red eyes rubbing wet creases into Peggy’s slacks.

Peggy, meanwhile, tried to find something to properly cosset her niece. Her eyes lighted upon her small dresser, and the tiny bottle of green glitter filled nailpolish resting upon it. Peggy plucked the bottle up and said, “why don’t we freshen up our nails and gossip?”

And so they did. It was a ritual that with time would also encompass bottles of wine and pints of ice cream, but for now it was just the two of them. Aunt Peg told Luanne about the puppy her Uncle Hank had bought, and Luanne told her aunt about her Barbie-related frustrations. 

“Well, don’t keep me in suspense!” Luanne grabbed the head up from the floor, and then showed her Aunt Barbie’s tangled head. Peg let out a soft whistle at the sight of the mess.

“Dios mama mia. Promise me you won’t do that for a living,” she teased gently, nudging the giggling and very sparkly little girl. Then together, they picked up Luanne’s big comb and carefully sculpted Barbie’s hair into a set of lovely braids.

Luanne never did learn how to make her Barbie look like Bo Derek, but, in all honesty, she thought her version was prettier.

**Author's Note:**

> This fanfiction uses characters from **King of the Hill** , all of whom are the property of **UNo money was gained from the writing of this fanfiction and all are used under the strictures of of the Berne Convention.**


End file.
